Golden West Goes Back-to-Back, Winning Title Match in Straight Sets

Long Beach, Calif. - The Golden West College men's volleyball team successfully defended its crown as the top program in the state after sweeping past Long Beach City College in the finals of the 2026 3C2A Men's Volleyball State Championships on Saturday at LBCC.

Led by Tournament MVP, Aidan Dubno's 16-kill performance, the Rustlers (24-3) rolled to a 25-17, 25-23, 25-19 win over the host Vikings (18-9) to earn back-to-back state titles as well as their eighth men's volleyball championship in school history (1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2013, 2025, 2026).

"This run to the championship was a lot different that last year's run on a lot of different levels," GWC head coach Nick Amado said. "As we went along, we had to figure out what works best for us, so with the journey like this, there were emotional highs and emotional lows. The record shows we are successful, but the record doesn't show the hard work in the weight room or the video room and we went through it, emotionally and physically and it took its toll on a lot of the guys. Volleyball started to feel like our routine and we needed to get our gratitude and love back for the game. I'm appreciative of our guys going through those ups and downs which helped us get back to right here."

Ethan Hammond led the Vikings with 12 kills, with no errors and an .800 hitting percentage. Ryder Tuaolo dished out 28 assists, while Sergio Garcia anchored the defense with nine digs. LBCC returned to the state title match in just the second season under the guidance of head coach, Joshua Nehls. 

"It was an amazing year for us," Nehls said. "We put in a bunch of work to make this a great experience for these guys and sometimes great things happen. We moved some players around and by doing that, it opened some doors for us. Sergio getting back from his knee injury and getting us back to full strength was what we needed for us to play our best at the right time. Golden West is so fast and they're so good at moving the ball around wherever you put the block up against them. They were really on tonight and played great."

The Rustlers – winners of their previous two matches against the Vikings this year – came out and set the tone in the opening set, jumping out to a 12-8 lead with Dubno pacing the attack with four early kills. 

But the Vikings stayed close to GWC with a kill by Hammond and back-to-back aces from Manu Lill to pull to within a point at 12-11.

From there, however, Golden West found another gear and used a 7-1 run to pull away in the opener at 19-13. Long Beach cut the deficit in half right away at 19-16 but would not get any closer the rest of the way as a 6-1 run closed things out with three more Dubno kills and a put-away by sophomore standout, AJ Kuebrich, who finished with seven kills, three digs and six total blocks.

Another fast start put the Rustlers in front, 15-9, in the second set, forcing a Long Beach timeout. Still comfortably ahead, 22-17, Long Beach finally found some consistent momentum and scored five the next six points to get back to within a point at 23-22, forcing Golden West into a timeout situation.

The pause worked to the Rustlers' favor as the very next LBCC serve went into the net to make it 24-22. A Hammond kill brought it back to a one-point match at 24-23, but another service error doomed the Vikings as GWC took a two-set lead in the match.

"Long Beach has a ton of really good athletes and Josh has done an incredible job with that teamso it was a lot to handle," Amado said. "This was the environment we wanted to be in. This is why we play sports, for this level of competition. Long Beach made a huge run at us in that second set with good service pressure, but consistently working to find our groove was the most important thing for us."

That all starts with the GWC sophomores, led by the big three of Dubno, setter John Braunstein (23 assists, four digs) and opposite, Frankie Gates (11 kills, .611 hitting percentage, no errors). Dubno finished with just one hitting error on 28 attempts for a .536 hitting percentage for the night.

A season that wasn't smooth sailing from start to finish, the Rustlers overcame a difficult 2-3 stretch before refocusing and coming together to finish what they started the way they wanted to finish

"It was fun all over again," Dubno said. "We've had a great connection this year. We got a little over-confident during that tough stretch and that gave us a reality check, so we worked a little harder and managed to get refocused on getting back to the championship and we managed to do it."

In the third set, Long Beach went all-in and led through the first portion of the set at 11-10. But a 10-2 run by the Rustlers put the lead back in GW's corner at 20-13. 

From there, it was a matter of counting down the points before finally, on match point, Gates slammed home the championship-clincher.

"Our sophomores are a very special group," Amado said. "I asked them, 'What special mark do you want to leave on this place before you leave?' and they said they wanted to be remembered here. I love them all and will miss them a lot."

2026 3C2A MEN'S VOLLEYBALL ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM

MVP - Aidan Dubno, Golden West
Samuel Chavez, Fullerton
Mykolas Petritias, Santa Barbara
Ethan Hammond, Long Beach
Ezekiel Sablan, Long Beach
John Braunstein, Golden West
Frankie Gates, Golden West

Courtesy of Tony Altobelli, CCCSIA